Ever since the End of World War Two, motorcycles have been seen as the absolute coolest way to travel. Whether they are traveling through the desert, city streets, a coastal road, or up a wall, the bike can promote an aura of awesome that is unmatched by an other everyday vehicle. Riding a motorcycle lends an aura of independence and attractive danger to the rider.

Norman from The Big O rides a Cool Bike which comes equipped with a rocket launcher, and the bike in question seems to be pretty durable and maneuverable, given how it went toe to toe with freaking Megadeus in a highway chase scene and had not a scratch on it by the end thanks to Norman's driving.

The first appearance of Hyoma Nagare from Combattler V had him riding a bike and performing crazy maneouvers with it.

The first time we saw Kenichi Go from Voltes V he was practicing in a firing range by shooting AND riding at once.

Some of the D-Wheels from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's would probably fall under this trope, especially since some are designed to be some of the coolest wheels in the anime: one based on the ride of the hero in Ghost Rider, a dragster, a steamroller... After all, cool bikes MUST be the centerpiece on an anime which features card games on motorcycles.

Many of them have awesome names to boot, whether in the series itself, as with Dark Glass's "Delta Eagle" and Jack Atlus's "Wheel of Fortune", which in the dub has its name changed to "Phoenix Whirlwind", or in supplemental material. Some of the other names include the main character's "Yusei Go", which appears to be a reference to "Speed Racer", as well as Blackbird, The Beast(dub-series only, unnamed in the original), Giganto L, T-666/Terrible Omen, and Bloody Kiss.

A subversion in Durarara!!. Celty's Cool Bike is actually a Cool Horse disguised as one. You can tell by the fact that it makes no noise, only whinnies and it has the shadow of a horse.

Beelzemon of Digimon Tamers has a cool, living bike called Behemoth. And if you aren't Beelzemon, it will possess you and drive all across the landscape.

And better, it wasn't made for him or anything like that. Beelzey was just the only one powerful enough to tame the cursed bike that had terrorized a town with its original rider (and then Guilmon, who knocked the original rider off only to become possessed himself.)

ÉX-Driver (or, to capitalize it properly, éX-Driver) is an anime about cars - the glitch-prone AI-controlled ones all normal people drive, and the old, all-manual sports cars the protagonists drive in order to catch the aforementioned AI ones. So it's all the more surprising when one of the protagonists turns up on a Ducati, which has a lot less trouble catching the runaway cars than the old cars do.

Ghost Rider's bike is cool mundanely. It's even cooler in Ghost Rider mode, what with the chains and skull and flames. And it leaves a trail of flaming tire tracks... and can ride up even vertical walls.

Johnny and Danny's bikes represent two distinct types - Johnny's is a chopper, while Danny's is a speed bike.

In the 2007 TMNT CGI movie, in his Nightwatcher guise, Raphael rides a motorcycle covered with plate steel. Michelangelo himself comments on how awesome this is.

Aachi and Ssipak loves this trope seeing as how every character has a cool motorcycle or at least motorcycle-like vehicles. Special mention goes to the character of Geko, a Badass cyborg who has a bike with plenty of weapons.

The Bike that is built into the front steering system of the Batmobile in The Dark Knight. The Bat-pod features built-in autocannons and can drive up a wall, flip around and land safely.

Steve McQueen's stolen Triumph SR6 650 in The Great Escape. Pure Rule of Cool. There's nothing like that whole scene at all, in the book the movie was based on. But the chance to put Steve McQueen on a Triumph for a chase scene was simply irresistible.

The police hoverbike from the latest Star Trek film. The trailer even made it seem as if the cop was a robot with a metallic voice. Since Trailers Always Lie, the cop in the actual movie had a normal voice.

They don't ride motorcycles, but the bikes in Mystery Team ARE pretty cool.

In Snow Crash, Hiro Protagonist's smart bike has its own operating system. And Raven's bike. You know, the one with a hydrogen bomb built into its sidecar.

Sirius in Harry Potter had a flying motorbike, which he gave to Hagrid to help him get Harry from Godric's Hollow to his uncle's house. It appeared again in Harry Potter, where Hagrid used it to get Harry safely from his home to the Weasley's house. In the end Harry inherited it. A Triumph Bonneville was used in the films, and this seems to be canon.

The bike created by the Librarian, and ridden by Death in Soul Music. It actually falls to bits quite early on, but the idea of the bike remains, resembling light reflecting off a gleaming machine, only without the machine. Unfortunately, because it was created in accordance with rock music tropes, it isn't designed to slow down, much less stop safely. It's meant to crash at the end of the eighth verse.[2]

In Robert Asprin's Phule's Company, CH (Chocolate Harry) gets official permission to use his personal hoverbike instead of a Legion vehicle.

Kamen Riders, obviously (that's where the "Rider" comes from); while the main Rider always has a Cool Bike, more recent seasons have started to introduce Second Riders who don't have them. In order:

The Showa Riders' bikes typically just have custom cowlings, due to special effects limitations of the 1970s, though they're all faster and more powerful than standard bikes, sometimes allowing them to ride along walls and up cliff faces. X-Rider's can be used as an underwater vehicle and Super-1's actually flies using rockets. The bikes were a much bigger part of the series in the earlier years; more recent seasons have it as The Artifact (how many times did we see Kamen Rider Kiva's bike, three?) It may have something to do with the Rider helmets losing the eyeholes.

Kuuga's TryChaser 2000 can combine with the sentient mecha-beetle Gouram, giving it extra armor and blades on the front. Partway through the series it's damaged and rebuilt as the BeatChaser 2000, which is also affected by Kuuga's Mid-Season Upgrade Rising Forms.

Agito's Machine Tornador can become a hoverboard. G3 and Gills have custom bikes (GuardChaser and Gills Raider, respectively) modified to resemble them.

Ryuki's and Knight'sBond Creatures could become motorcycles when in Super Mode - still remaining very much sentient. All Riders in the series have access to a common type of bike called the Ride Shooter, taking the Rider through the portal to the mirror world. The American adaptation Dragon Knight actually added more, by having the characters' normal motorcycles transform along with them when they became Kamen Riders. The Riders also have awesome real-world bikes during non-spandex time. There's an awesome scene near the end with six Riders, finally on the same page - even The Hero and the Evil Twin! - riding out of MIB headquarters unmorphed as a Cool Bike-riding, cool jacket-wearing squad, ready to kick butt and take names.

More bike awesome from KRDK: Mirror world bike chase. The sneaky Torque found out that Xaviax is too smart for The Starscream, and the new Dragon, polite but sociopathic Strike, is hunting him. Torque rides for his life, and on the street, it looks like a guy riding crazily for no reason. Only we can see that in the reflections in doors and windows, Strike is right on his tail. Torque eventually thinks he's lost Strike, when several stories up, the reflected Strike emerges into reality and drops in right behind him.

Faiz has the Autovajin, which can transform into a robot with its own AI; in this form one wheel is a Gatling while the other is a jetpack, not to mention, its handlebar becomes Faiz's Laser Blade. Its highest-priority directive is not "obey Faiz." Kaixa's Side Basshar turns into a walker mecha with tons of missiles that can deploy even more missiles. Delta doesn't get a unique bike, but he's usually associated with the Jet Sliger, a rocket- and weapon-laden behemoth every Rider apparently has but only he really uses. (Faiz has one, but it gets blown to scrap in its introduction episode during a battle with Delta. Kaixa presumably has one if the other two do, but it is never summoned.) Also, its wheels are spheres, and it can travel sideways if desired.

The BOARD Riders' bikes can all channel the power of the Rouze Cards, allowing the Riders to use them for special attacks. Chalice's, like the later Dragon Knight, is an ordinary bike that changes when he does.

Hibiki is the subversion; he gets a completely unmodded Honda Valkyrie Rune (see below under Real Life). This presumably plays into the fact that Hibiki, unlike his fellows, is not a Badass Biker. (He's certainly a badass. He just can't ride all that well.)

Kabuto and Gatack have their own custom machines (Kabuto and Gatack Extender) which can transform into more battle-oriented forms, Kabuto's gaining a battering ram and Gatack's turning into a flying hoverboard; they're also affected by the Riders' Clock Up systems. The other Riders simply get slightly customized versions of the common Machine Zectron bike.

Kiva's Machine Kivaa has the brain of a horse monster, turns invisible at high speed, and has an enhancement booster that nullifies wind resistance. It's also the only chopper-style Rider machine, and is generally awesome-looking. Ixa's Ixalion, despite the cool name, is simply a custom bike; Saga doesn't have a unique bike, but Taiga owns a Honda DN-01, which he never uses as Saga.

Decade's Machine Decader can transform into past Rider machines via AttackRide cards; Decade changes it into the Autovajin in the first episode and the Side Basshar in the Grand Finale movie.

Double's HardBoilder is modular, its rear half being swappable with jetski and flight wing attachments; it's also armed (machineguns in all forms, plus torpedoes for the water form). Accel is his own Cool Bike, and can combine with the sentient tank Gunner A for combat situations (he also owns a red Ducati called the Diablossa which he uses as a civilian). Skull's SkullBoilder is essentially the same as Double's bike without the option parts.

OOO's Ride Vendor, as the name implies, can change into a vending machine which dispenses can-shaped helper robots called Candroids. Interestingly, the Ride Vendor is mass-produced by OOO's support organization and anyone with appropriate clearance (and Cell Medals) can use one.

Fourze's Machine Massigler, fitting with the show's theme of space travel, is shaped like a shuttle and is spaceworthy; the Powerdizer exoskeleton can even transform into a launchpad for the Massigler.

Kamen Rider Core from one of the movies was a monstrous... thing made from the dark memories of all Kamen Riders (powered up by a few Core Medals.) It could turn the bottom half of its body into a flaming motorycle.

In Super Sentai and Power Rangers, most teams had at least one or two bikes. Some teams would get a full set of bikes for each member (with the extra ranger often being left out if there was one), while other teams only had bikes for certain members, forcing the others to ride on a sidecar equipped on one of the bikes or use a different vehicle. However, they were gradually phased out in the the late 90s and 00s in favor of more fantastical vehicles or upgrades to their mecha. This wasn't much of an issue for Power Rangers, where the teams mainly used teleporters in the early seasons and the bikes were only kept just for the toys. However, several seasons gave everyone (or almost everyone) a bike where Sentai did not.

There were also no less than three flying bikes, each for a single Ranger in its season. They'd transform from motorcycles to various types of flying gear. There's also the Trans-Armor Cycle, which turned into armor and extra weaponry.

Whether it's cool or not is up to the individual, but the most unique bike was the one belonging to the Omega Ranger/DekaBreak. It was a motor-unicycle! And those actually exist, some looking quite like the one in the show. Also, the same series gives us a Humongous Mecha that's a giant motorcycle that other robots can ride.

Then Came Bronson, a lonerWalking the Earth action-adventure show starring Michael Parks that ran for only one season in 1969 and '70. He does his wandering on a 1969 XLH 900cc Harley-Davidson Sportster.

Happy Days: The Fonz. In one episode, Richie acquires a bike of his own and asks Fonzie whether he thinks it's "nice". Fonzie's reply is the page quote.

Steve Jackson Games' catalog once contained a fictitious entry for Kung Fu CB Mamas on Wheels vs. the Motorcycle Aztec Wrestling Nuns. Despite not actually being a real game, if it did exist, it would have had one side entirely on Cool Bikes.

The Triumph Bonneville ridden by Eva/Big Mama and the Speed Triples ridden by her subordinates in Act 3 of Metal Gear Solid 4; it helps that they're also real world cool bikes.

Being a game centered around a whole collection of badass bikers, The Lost And Damned has no shortage of cool bikes, ranging from classic 1950s/1960s-style Easy Rider and modern custom choppers to exotic Italian and Japanese crotch rockets.

Mr. Grimm of Twisted Metal is always driving some variant of a weapon-equipped motorcycle. Always.

Bayonetta gets to ride a Cool Bike for a little while midway through the game. Later, so does Jeanne when she rides up the side of a rocket to rescue Bayonetta and stop the awakening of Jubileus.

Saints Row 2 introduced a selection of cool bikes, from Harley Davidson choppers to Japanese racing bikes. The coolest, however, would have to be the Kaneda, ride of choice for Ronin leader Shogo, which features neon trims and the ability to ride up walls.

Full Throttle, a game about a biker gang's Badass leader Ben, naturally features a variety of Cool Bikes. Ben's eventually gets the (limited) ability to fly, even.

Road Rash 64 has the "Insanity Mode" bikes named "Executioner" and "Hammerhead". Both bikes can travel upwards of 200 mph. A skilled player can utilize their speed to jump over entire sections of some courses with them (including bypassing long winding turns and mountains). The Executioner appears to be a V-24 engine with wheels and a seat. The Hammerhead is a more high-tech bike that appears to have more of a jet engine.

The bikes are, in fact, too souped-up for regular gameplay, but can be obtained from the beginning with a cheat device such as the Gameshark. In order to even hope to do well on most regular tracks with them, the player will have to lay off the throttle for most of the game. Jumping over a car at full speed may cause the bike to fly so far off the course that the player will not catch back up to the other racers.

The Swat Kats Cyclotron. Launches right from the Turbokat... Comes in both one and two seat varieties, has all sorts of weapons, fires miniature versions of a lot of the Turbokat's missiles. And it literally has a jet engine.

Biker Mice From Mars, where the Cool Bikes used by the protagonists were not only cool, and armed to the teeth, but sentient as well.

From Code Lyoko, Ulrich's "Overbike". A mono-wheeled, flying bike with a reactor. Virtual, but certainly cool. It has a real-world close equivalent. Main difference is the color. (And that it doesn't fly, obviously.)

In the later seasons of Re Boot, the virus Megabyte gets an upgrade from cool limo to Cool Bike, which is later acquired by Andraia. In her own words: "Now that is a nice bike!"

Although all bikes are generally cool, there are some models that are quintessentially cooler than the rest. They tend to have the name "BMW" (Eg: the R90/S, the K 1200R, R 1200R and the R 1150R Rockster), "Triumph" (namely the Bonneville, the Daytona, and the Speed triple), "Ducati" (Particularly the Monster) or "Harley Davidson" on them.

"MV Augusta's" F4 and Brutale bikes. They only make a handful of these per year, by hand

The BMW R75 and Zündapp KS-750 couple from World War Two were more about utility than coolness, yet they were the workhorses of the Wehrmacht, they had an automobile-like powered rear axle, locking differentials, offroad gears and usually could go where no sane driver of a Jeep or Kubelwagen would ever attempt to.

The modified "Indian" Scout used by burt munroe at the bonneville salt flats; it still holds the land speed record for motorcycles under 1000cc.

Dodge Tomahawk. It uses the exact same engine that the Dodge Viper sports car does. What sort of engine is that, you ask? A V-10. A very high-displacement V-10. Unfortunately this makes the bike a case of Awesome but Impractical, as the weight and size of the engine meant that it had to have 4 wheels and the fuel tank had to be mounted way at the front to avoid the heat the engine gives, and has a fuel economy figure of about 60 feet to the gallon.

You could be forgiven for believing it safer to just take the warhead off a missile and ride that instead. (Heck, it'd probably still be just as safe with the warhead left in place.)

Bimota's Tesi line of motorcycles, especially the Tesi 3D, with its much sleeker looks compared to its predecessors - The idea behind the design seems to be to put as much emphasis on its two-wheeled-ness as possible without impairing its functionality as a speedbike.

↑Which Cap uses to great effect against motorcycle-ridng HYDRA mooks late in the movie.